


Lester's Metamorphosis

by americanphancakes



Series: Phanlight Zone 2018 [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Arachnophobia, Fluffy Ending, Gen, Spiders, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 17:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16351106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/americanphancakes/pseuds/americanphancakes
Summary: Phil gets bitten by a mysterious spider, and then wakes up the next morning with some, um... new features.Part of my Phanlight Zone fic series for Halloween 2018!





	Lester's Metamorphosis

**Author's Note:**

> This installment of the Phanlight Zone is considerably more fluffy and less incredibly messed up. lol... However, if spiders bother you, maybe skip this. :P
> 
> Thanks to PhilTrashNo164 for the idea for this fic. :) (At least my notes say you were the source of the idea, I hope that's accurate, lol)
> 
> [Tumblr link (for liking & reblogging).](https://americanphancakes.tumblr.com/post/179233264608/new-work-lesters-metamorphosis)

“Ow!”

Phil watched the tiny, fairly innocuous-looking spider fall from his arm and attempt to skitter away. Panicked, however, Phil stomped and successfully crushed the evil little demon creature.

He cleaned up the spider guts on the bathroom floor and examined the bite. For it to have been so noticeably painful, he thought, it was almost certainly venomous. It was indeed swollen, though not much more than a mosquito bite would have been. The edges of the bite were patchy, though. He wondered if he could find what kind of spider bit him based on what he remembered of its appearance and how the bite looked.

He sat in the lounge, scouring various websites but being unable to find a match for the spider he squished. Everything he found that left a mark like the one on his arm was some sort of non-spider pest primarily found in America or southeast Asia, not England. Or anywhere in Europe, for that matter.

“Christ, Phil! What happened to your arm?” Dan exclaimed upon entering the lounge.

“Oh, this. It really hurt, I can tell you that. And it was some kind of spider, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what.”

“Where’s the spider now?” Dan asked, cautiously glancing around the flat.

“It’s now a pile of flattened guts in the bin.”

“Okay good.”

“No, not good. What if this spider’s bite was super lethal and I’m slowly dying as we speak?”

“Do you feel like you’re slowly dying?” Dan asked.

“No but my arm still hurts. It’s aching, like I worked out too hard or something.”

“That definitely sounds like you’ve been venomed. Want me to take you to A&E?”

“Yeah, that’s probably safest. I just hope the nurse doesn’t glare at me for killing the spider instead of keeping it for identification.”

 

***

 

Phil was examined at A&E (after indeed being glared at & lectured for not keeping the spider for identification) only to be released with basic spider bite care instructions. The doctor said the bite was consistent with that of a fairly common variety of spider and that Phil may exhibit flu-like symptoms over the next two days based on the appearance of the bite.

Phil could handle that. He went to sleep that night with no worries.

 

***

 

Dan was unprepared for the blood-curdling screech that would come from Phil’s room the next morning. Annoyed that Phil was being a drama queen, he marched into Phil’s room with a lecture prepared.

“Phil, what the he-- oh my god.”

“Dan, what’s happened to me?!?!”

Phil was stood near the foot of his bed on his hands and knees… and two other sets of dark, hairy, pointed legs protruding from the sides of his torso. Dan slowly approached Phil, looking for the obvious seam or straps or something holding those legs on. On the contrary, however, Dan saw reddened, slightly bloody wounds around the base of the new legs where they’d erupted out of the inside of his body.

“I don’t think I ever read an issue of Spider-Man where this is how his transformation went,” Dan muttered, turning pale with fear.

“That’s because I’m not Tom Holland, I’m Phil, and I’m far less fortunate.”

“Oh my god I never thought I’d ever unironically describe anything as Kafkaesque.”

“What do I do!?” Phil’s panic snapped Dan out of his frozen confusion.

“I don’t know!” Dan nearly shrieked.”

“Your panic isn’t helping.”

“Sorry, it’s just… you’re part spider now and I love you but I hate spiders so do you see my dilemma here?”

“I appreciate that this is hard for you to deal with but I’m the one who’s got spider legs now, Daniel.”

“Eugh, and I can’t look at them,” Dan said, turning his head away in disgust. “Um… I dunno, can you, like... fold the legs in and stand up straight?”

“I think so? It’s hard though, my instinct isn’t to stand up properly anymore…” Phil tried to stand upright, but his balance was all off. His center of gravity had shifted so it took some work not to wobble. He tried folding his legs in so they’d at least be unobtrusive, and this made him wobble a bit more since he’d been using them rather like a rope dancer used a pole to keep their balance on a tightrope. Eventually he got used to it.

“Okay, bit better, um…” Dan gulped. The protrusions, where Phil’s flesh was torn, were sickening. Partly because Phil was injured there, and partly because the spider legs twitched ever so slightly. “Can you try and put a shirt on?”

Phil reached for one of his “try new things” merch shirts.

“No, not a light colored one!” Dan cried out.

“What? Why not?”

“I’ll be able to see those dark hairy spider legs through it! Something darker!”

Phil put on a blue t-shirt he didn’t care much about. It was better, despite the obvious lumps where the legs were curled up.

The obvious twitchy lumps. Dan shuddered.

 

***

 

The next day, Phil had grown fanged chelicerae out of the sides of his mouth and suddenly had a taste for flies. Dan sneered whenever he looked at Phil, but went to the pet store to buy him flies normally intended for pet amphibians and reptiles anyway. Because that's just what you do for someone you care about.

The day after that, Phil had another set of eyes. Dan’s comfort with Phil’s transformation was starting to grow, however slightly, and he made friendly “four-eyes” jokes which became “six-eyes” jokes when Phil put his glasses on.

“Six-eyes” became less funny the next day, when Phil actually had six eyes. He also had an increase of thick black hair on some areas of his body, including his face. Dan thought he worked it and looked pretty handsome, actually.

At this point, Phil’s physical transformation was more or less complete, however his behavior began to change. He spun webs all around his bedroom (“Don’t ask where the silk is coming from,” he said to Dan in his newly muffled, mumbly way). He sat in darkened corners and waited for Dan to appear before pouncing on him, terrifying the poor guy. Upon realizing what he’d done, he'd then skitter off back to the corner with a bashful apology. See, Dan had been his fly supplier and Phil now associated Dan with food on a very primal level, and genuinely couldn’t help the attacks.

“What if one day I’m not me anymore?” Phil said one day with a whine.

“I think the changes have sort of plateaued at this point,” Dan said reassuringly, sitting on the end of a bed that Phil never slept in anymore. “You’ve been like this for awhile.”

“You know what I miss?”

“What?”

“Popcorn. I mean... I miss liking it. It tastes different now.”

“Yeah.”

“But mostly…” Phil sighed. “Nah, nevermind. It’s stupid.”

“If it matters to you, it’s not stupid,” Dan said.

“I miss when you snuggled with me.”

“Oh…”

“I know, these extra legs are all gross and creepy to you.”

Dan looked at Phil’s slightly inhuman face and the legs that were sprouting from his unclothed torso. Sure, he looked like a half-man, half-spider… creature… but he was still Phil, wasn’t he?

“You’re not gross, Phil. I hate spiders, sure, but… I don’t hate you. I think…” Dan sighed. “I think I can love spider legs if they’re _your_ spider legs.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I may need some time, but… I think I can do it.” Dan stood and slowly approached Phil. “Can I try something?”

“Okay…”

Dan got down on his hands and knees on the floor next to Phil and wrapped an arm around his torso, between the two spider legs on one side. There was coarse hair on Phil’s back, but between them was still human skin that Dan could find comfort in. He could probably get used to Phil’s more spider-like bits considering how much human was still left there.

“Here, now you put a leg around me.”

“But you’ll freak out!”

“Maybe, but… I want to try, okay?”

“Okay,” Phil said nervously and lifted one of his tiny pointy spider feet, draping his leg over Dan’s back.

Dan shivered at the touch of the chitinous appendage, but took a breath and slowly relaxed into it. It’s still Phil, he thought.

“There, see?” Dan said. “We can still hug. Kind of.”

 

***

 

With some practice, Dan helped Phil re-learn how to walk on his hind legs -- an odd way to have to think of his only two human legs -- and they were hugging upright again. Phil had too hard a time hiding his spider legs, so he just had to walk around the flat with those legs sticking out like extra arms that couldn’t hold anything. That didn’t stop him from trying to multitask, however. Many coffee mugs were lost before he finally quit.

Dan had to get used to Phil’s new appearance. The eyes were helpful, since Phil could now see more of the apartment at once. He could sit on the sofa and, while reading with one pair of eyes, watch Attack on Titan with another. They never had to worry about pests in their home -- flies were just fun, free snacks for Phil, easily caught in a strategically-placed web over their back door. Dan had to duck under it if he wanted to step outside, which took a few tries for him to finally learn.

They never were able to figure out a cure for Phil’s odd affliction. But soon enough, Dan’s arachnophobia was no longer getting in the way of him being warm with Phil. The spider legs no longer bothered him when he went in for a hug. Flies from the pet store were just another grocery to buy.

The sight of the giant half-spider on his sofa was just another little detail that made Dan feel happily and cozily at home.

**Author's Note:**

> AND LOOK DAN LEARNED A LESSON ABOUT BEING PREJUDICED AGAINST SPIDERS. Miss Muffet from Undertale would be so proud.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed it :)
> 
> [Tumblr link (for liking & reblogging).](https://americanphancakes.tumblr.com/post/179233264608/new-work-lesters-metamorphosis)


End file.
